Danfoss has announced that Mars Super Markets, Baltimore, MD, is the winner of its first "EnVisioneer of the Year" award competition.

The announcement was made May 13th following the Danfoss EnVisioneering Symposium, "Rx: Systems Approach to Net Zero," held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Mars initiated an energy efficiency program to reduce costs and improve operations at its facilities in the greater Baltimore area. The company met its objective through multiple rebate offerings from the Baltimore Gas & Electric "Smart Energy Savers" program, managed by ICF-International. Rebates totaled $226,750, with an estimated payback of 2.36 years.

Mars saved more than 3 million kilowatt-hours per year at its retail stores, distribution center and corporate headquarters. The company installed LED lights, used Danfoss anti-sweat heater controls on its refrigeration cases, and employed Danfoss variable frequency drives on motors that run its heating and cooling systems.

"We wanted to recognize a Danfoss customer who exemplifies the core values of EnVisioneering and uses our products to realize significant energy and environmental savings," acording to Robert Wilkins, president of Danfoss North America.

"With our Danfoss energy management system, we can control the heaters based on the humidity inside the store," says Rick Snyder, director of development for Mars. "If the story humidity is 15%, we can run the heaters just three minutes out of 15. If the humidity is high, say 53%, then we'll run the heaters 12 minutes out of 15. The savings with this type of program just made good sense."